Artfactories

The association "Autresparts", set up in September 2000, is a think-tank bringing together cultural actors and researchers on the relationship between art, territory and society. It merged in November 2007 with the Artfactories association, an European resource center on brownfields transformed into artistic spaces.

Hangar is a centre for artistic creation located in Barcelona’s Poblenou district, occupying a refurbished industrial building covering 1800 m2. Hangar has several functions, but they are all geared towards a single goal: to provide support for new generations of artists, whatever the nature of their work and the tools they use to produce it. Hangar provides three major services to the artistic community: the rental of spaces (studios) at very affordable rates, access to equipment, programmes and qualified technicians specialising in creation using digital technologies, and, lastly, international exchanges and residence schemes for artists. Hangar offer visibility to the artists organizing projects like Show Rooms, All Open, video programs and exhibitions.
Hangar was created by and for the artistic community to cater for a number of needs stemming from Barcelona’s context and the changes that have taken place in the field of international artistic creation and production. Its beginnings are to be found in the early 1980s, when the Federació Sindical d’Artistes Plàstics de Catalunya (Federated Union of Plastic Artists of Catalonia) (as the AAVC was then known) asked Barcelona City Council for permission to use the old warehouses in the port for artist’s workshops. These now house the Catalan History Museum. There were numerous precedents from elsewhere in Europe to support the idea, such as Art Space (London), the Kunstler Bethanien (an old hospital, Berlin), and the Cité des Arts (Paris). These experiences were used to attract the attention of public institutions and make them aware of the problems facing emerging artists in the city, and possible solutions to them.
The 1992 Barcelona Olympics and the far-reaching urban transformations it brought have changed the city. Rental and purchase prices of living and working space soared. In line with a very widespread trend in the West, where formerly industrial buildings were being used for cultural purposes, it was in 1994 that the AAVC first raised the issue of the need to solve this problem by opening up disused buildings to artists. And it finally achieved its aims when Hangar was opened on 20 June 1997.

Former use : warehouse
Surface of the site : 1800 m²
Location: suburbs in an industrial area.
Foundation year : 1997
Type of occupation: lease.
Owner of the building : private